[JURIST] MasterCard [corporate website] announced late Friday that a security lapse at CardSystems Solutions [corporate website], a third-party processing company in Tuscon, Arizona, has potentially exposed more than 40 million cards to fraud, and that it has notified banks of the problem. Some 13.9 of the cards affected carry the
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[JURIST] Leading Friday's states brief, the Iowa Supreme Court today refused to address the ruling of a lower court that dissolved a Vermont civil union [VT statute text]. The Supreme Court did not judge the merits of the legal claim made by conservative challengers, but instead found that the Iowa
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[JURIST] Texas Governor Rick Perry [official profile] Friday signed into law [Governor's press release] legislation which creates a new life-without-parole sentencing option in state capital murder cases. Previously, Texas juries have only had the option of sentencing offenders to death or life in prison with the possibility of parole after
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[JURIST] A UN panel has expressed "great concern" at the increase in unsentenced detainees in Canadian prisons following recent federal sentencing reform [Justice Canada backgrounder]. There are currently in Canada more incarcerated persons awaiting trial or sentencing than there are persons actually serving a sentence. The UN Working Group on
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[JURIST] The lower chamber of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature [official website] approved a ban of the morning-after pill [Wikipedia backgrounder] on state college campuses Thursday, sending the bill to the state Senate. The proposed legislation [bill text] would ban University of Wisconsin System health centers from advertising, prescribing, or dispensing
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[JURIST] Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer [Wikipedia profilie] has been sued by the US Department of the Treasury's Comptroller of the Currency [official website] and by the Clearing House [corporate website], a group representing national banks. The suit is an effort to
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[JURIST] Under new guidelines [DOD press release], US military health professionals are permitted to observe and advise on "lawful" interrogations of detainees, but may not participate in questioning and must report any inhumane treatment. The guidelines, contained in a June 3rd Pentagon memo, differentiate between those providing health care to
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[JURIST] By a vote of 221-184 the US House of Representatives has passed the United Nations Reform Act of 2005 [PDF text] calling for broad reforms at the UN and allowing the US to withold up to 50 percent of funding if reform goals are not met. Republican Congressman Henry
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[JURIST] Former Tyco [JURIST news archive] CEO Dennis Kozlowski and former CFO Mark Schwartz were convicted Friday of grand larceny in connection with huge bonuses and other compensation amounting to over $150M they improperly received while in charge of the company. They were both convicted of 12 counts of grand
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[JURIST] Ethiopian officials announced Friday that 336 detainees seized in the wake of post-election protests [JURIST report] have been freed. A government spokesman said that any additional prisoners found not to have been involved in the protests would be released. Some human rights groups estimate that the number of people
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[JURIST] US District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel [official profile] has approved the settlement of a civil rights lawsuit [materials] between Ford Motor Company [corporate website] and its black employees, granting these employees access to an apprenticeship program. In February, the court granted preliminary approval of the class action settlement and
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[JURIST] Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos [BBC profile] has asked the Angolan Supreme Court to rule on whether portions of the country's new election laws passed in May are constitutional [Angolan Constitution text]. Dos Santos has not yet specified which section of the law, which his own government promulgated,
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[JURIST] Croatia on Friday arrested 10 people suspected of committing war crimes against Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s. The arrests were made in eastern Croatia, an area with a large ethnic Serb population and where several former members of the Serb paramilitary group Scorpions live; they follow Monday's Croat detention
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[JURIST] To head off a revolt among members of his government over what are increasingly seen as unduly-harsh immigration laws, Australian Prime Minister John Howard [official website] has loosened rules for mandatory detention of immigrants who enter the country without visas. Families with children will now be hosted by the
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[JURIST] A private contractor for Zapata Engineering [corporate website] Peter Ginter - himself an ex-Marine with eight years service - has claimed he was abused by US military personnel while detained for three days. Gintner is the second to speak out among 19 US and Iraqi security contractors who were
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[JURIST] Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad [BBC profile], whose 22 years in office until 2003 made him one of Asia's longest-serving political leaders, Friday urged transparency and fairness in the trial of Saddam Hussein while announcing the launch of the so-called Emergency Committee for Iraq, co-chaired by himself, former
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[JURIST] Detroit high school student Andrew Osantowski has been convicted under a post 9/11 Michigan state anti-terror law of two counts of threatening terrorism against fellow students at his Chippewa Valley High School [school website]. The case could be the first application in the US of terror laws to prosecute
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[JURIST] The US Army Thursday charged staff sergeant Alberto B. Martinez of the New York National Guard 42nd Infantry [official website] with the murders of his two commanding officers at an army base near Baghdad. An initial military investigation concluded that the officers were killed by a mortar round, but
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[JURIST] Sweden, Finland and Portugal have joined Britain, Denmark, Ireland [JURIST report] and the Czech Republic in postponing their ratifications of the EU constitution after European heads of governent Thursday agreed to extend the ratification deadline [JURIST report] into 2007. Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said Friday [PA report] in
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[JURIST] In a rare federal case involving gay marriage, a US District Court judge on Thursday ruled that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act [text] passed by Congress does not violate the Constitution. Judge Gary Taylor declined to rule on whether California's ban on same-sex marriage violates the civil rights
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[JURIST] Senate Democrats refused a Republican compromise over the nomination of John Bolton [JURIST report] as US ambassador to the UN Thursday, demanding more information than GOP leadership offered on his pre-Iraq war assessments of several countries' weapons programs. Democrats want materials from preparations for Bolton's Congressional testimony on Syria's
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[JURIST] Prominent humanitarian aid groups are meeting Friday with International Criminal Court [official website] prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, currently investigating war crimes in Darfur [ICC press release]. The unusual meeting was called by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation [foundation website] in New York and talks are expected to
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[JURIST] Taiwan's Supreme Court Friday rejected an opposition appeal to overturn the result of a disputed 2004 presidential election won by Chen Shui-Bian [official website] in a close race. In the March election Chen defeated Nationalist Party candidate Lien Chen [BBC profile] by fewer than 30,000 votes out of 13.5
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